Back to the 70s!

                           

        Today in class, we did a really fun experiment where we actually didn't blow anything up...!  We learned how to tie dye shirts using chemicals that make the cotton fibers of our t-shirts open up, thus absorbing more color.  Since the cotton fibers absorb more color, the shirts, after having been rinsed and washed alone many time, will be vibrant as the day we made them.  WE started the experiment by soaking our shirts in a mixture of cool water and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).  After having let the shirts rest in the mixture for a few minutes, we each took our shirts and wrung out the liquid trying to make them as dry, yet damp, as possible.  then, we went crazy!  We had jugs that were cut open at the top--as you can see in the picture below--that we filled halfway with water and then mixed a different dye into each jug.  We poured the colors we wanted to use in solo cups and used pipettes to draw up the color and apply to our shirts.  Though, some chose to just pour the color from the cups.  Of course, we each were attempting different versions of tire dying.  Some were doing spirals, some were doing fish scales, but I chose to do diamonds. When we had finished our "artwork" we placed our shirts in Ziploc bags to set.  Three days from now, this upcoming Saturday, we will all rinse our shirts and wash them and see what we have each created!!

Sig. Figs and Vectors!

                 Today in class, we did a brief review on Sig. Figs (which was needed very much) and we started learning about vectors and scalars and magnitude and direction!  First of all, I am really glad that we went back over the sig. figs because I do not think I was fully understanding the rules about what makes a digit significant.  I thought all zeros counted, including leading zeros.  I realized that I was quite wrong so Mr. O'Connell really cleared that up for me.  After that, we moved on to vectors.  We discussed magnitude and vectors and directions and it was a long day!  Fortunately, because Mr. O'Connell's an amazing teacher,  the majority of us, if not all, walked away understanding the lesson.

By Newton's Laws, Man!!

                   In class, not only did we explode eggs, but we also discussed Newton's three Laws of Inertia.  We learned that his first law (which, by the way, was not even discovered by Newton, but discovered by Galileo) states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and that an object in motion will tend to stay in motion.  An example of that would be if you kicked a ball in space.  After having kicked said ball, due to no interference from gravity, the ball will continue to travel forward.  Newton's second law states that acceleration can only occur in the case of an unbalanced force.  An example of that would be pushing an empty shopping cart instead of a full one.  His third law states that any force applied to an object will be met with an equal and opposite force.  An example of that would be when air rushes out of a balloon.  As the air escapes, the balloon flies up!   

The EGG-PLOSION!

                    The time has finally come!!  Today in class we took our eggs and made some bombs.  One-by-one we took our eggs, filled them with Hydrogen Gas, and then lit the top using a lighter.  Obviously, throughout the experiment, we wore goggles.  Our tiny, yet loud, explosions were achieved by--as stated earlier--first filling our eggs with the same gas that lifted the Hindenburg in the air and kept it there.  Honestly, within our eggs, we created a mini-Hindenburg explosion.  Seeing it happen in real life though really brought into perspective what went down in that blimp.  The fact that the explosion happened so quickly and almost without any warning is proof that things can go really wrong really fast.  This supervised small-scale experiment was definitely interesting and tons of fun to participate in.  Plus, it was really fun to see everyone's reactions when their egg finally blew up! 

Preparing the EGG-PLOSION

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The owner of egg and name given to egg in numerical order.  Kaylee  (Jerald), Korie (Richard),Antiana (Baby Evil), and Nicholas (Greyson).

          Thursday in Physics we prepared for an experiment that we will be doing this next Tuesday.  It will be another combustion experiment where we will be using ignited gases to explode our baby eggs.  Today in class we readied the eggs.  Out of a carton, we were told to choose one egg and to then go clean it.  Next, we were instructed to draw a face on our egg that we saw fitting, and of course, we went one step further and named them!  After we drew expressions on our eggs we went outside because the next step can get a little messy.  Our teacher gave each of us screws which we used to tap small holes in both the top and bottom.  Then, one-at-a-time we went over to a small tray where we emptied the contents of our eggs.  We blew through the top hole causing the yolk and egg whites to be forced out of the bottom hold and into a tray.  From there, we all went back inside and rinsed our eggs out through the holes.  We then went back to the classroom and set our eggs back into the carton they came from so they could properly dry.  This coming Tuesday we will put them to good use... ;) 

Caution: EXPLODING WATERMELONS!!

               Thursday June 16, 2016              

          So, Thursday in class we did something really interesting and probably very dangerous if done wrong!  With Mr. O'Connell's direction, we basically made a small-scale homemade H Bomb inside a watermelon that we then ignited and watched explode.               We started out with a watermelon the was carved like a pumpkin but we kept everything in tact (we cut the eyes, nose, and mouth but we didn't go all the way through the watermelon).  With a hole cut out in the top (we also made a small hole in the back of the watermelon where we stuck in the end of a lighter covered with a rubber glove), we placed a small, open can of Hydrogen*.  We then took a cup of water and poured the contents into the small can and quickly put the top of the melon back on.  Using an oven mitt, our teacher held down the top of the watermelon, securing the inside.  After counting to about 30, a student cautiously lit the lighter and then BOOM!!! The watermelon exploded and it's eyes, nose, and mouth launched outwards.  It was awesome and a couple of people screamed kind of loudly...😂

About Me!

All About Me!

          Well, my name is Nicholas and I am from the small town of McCrory, AR.  I live in a house with my father, Claude, and my step-mother, Lynnette.  My family definitely does NOT stop there, though.  I have two older brothers, Thomas and Rusty, and two older sisters who happen to be twins, Brittany and Alicia.  All of whom are out of the house, hallelujah! But, I also have a lot of step-siblings too.  I have three step-brothers, Turner, Tucker, and Joseph, one step-sister, Molly, and three "step-siblings-in-law?" Tyler, Josh, and Autumn.  BTW, Tyler is a girl....just FYI.  But, back to me.  At school, I like to to stay really involved in extracurricular.  In fact, I may devote TOO much time to them.  Just this last school year, I was in FCCLA, FBLA, Student Council, FFA, Concert Band, Marching Band, Drama Club, Book Club, and I was the head for half of them..  With all my extracurricular work, I never really have any time left to do that much out of school.  I was literally always doing something, whether it be for this organization or that organization.  Academically, I have always kind of been average.  I have never been the worst, though I have never really been the best either.  School at McCrory can get VERY boring.  Our history classes suck, our math classes are taught brutally, and our English classes are a bore.  Science, though, has always been fun, and exciting.  I love my science classes, my science teachers, and the lessons we learn there!  It's good that I love science the way I do though, because my goal in life is to be an Optometrist, and that is going to take a lot of science.  Once I graduate from McCrory High School, I plan on attending UCA in Conway and receiving a B.S. in Biology.  I will then attend The SUNY College of Optometry in New York and earn my licence to practice.  After that, I will create my own practice in either New York or Texas. 

A couple of friends and I on our band bus headed to Concert Competition at Cabot High School.
(From left to right: Faith, Justice, Nicholas, Jessica, Leila, and Antiana)

          Oh, and one interesting story about me... Once I was playing a little game with my sister, Alicia, and we were running around a lot.  She ended up chasing me back into my mom's room and I tried to hide from her, so I threw myself down on a palette I had made on the floor the night before.  Little did I know that early my other sister, Brittany, had broken a candle that was above my palette.  She got scared and instead of cleaning up the glass, she ran.. So, long story short, I had a shard of glass lodged in my ankle and, because of the amount of blood loss, almost died.

Antiana, Leila, and I wondering around in the bamboo forest of Woodruff county.